The Conscious Youth Development Programme has taken some very deadly weapons off the street - apparently as part of the gang truce initiative.
They won't say who they got it from or how - but the trove of deadly weapons includes a grenade - different from the British ones found before. It also includes twelve 40 millimeter rounds - which are almost as deadly as grenades.
Indeed they are weapons of destruction made for war zones - but they were on the Belize city streets.
We questioned CYDP's Edward Broaster - who was instrumental in getting them off the streets - about the quite frightening find:..
Jules Vasquez
"What's the story of all this weaponry?"
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"The story behind all this Jules is the hard work that's been going on and ongoing which enable us to take this weaponry off the streets of Belize City."
Jules Vasquez
"All these were available and in the hands of criminal elements?"
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"Well we recovered one fragment grenade and 12mm rounds along with 86 - 5.56 rounds of ammunition and 52 - 7.62 rounds. All these were on the streets and were recovered from an undisclosed area in Belize City."
Jules Vasquez
"Ok I just want to be as specific as possible. I know some levels of confidentiality are involved but were these surrendered? Were they discovered or where they left "in an abandoned" lot?"
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"All I can say to you about the recovery of these items Jules is because of the great cooperation that we have fostered between members of the community."
Jules Vasquez
"That indicates that there was some voluntary nature to it? It wasn't the product of a raid on some private property or something."
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"It was not the product of a raid."
Jules Vasquez
"Is this an indication, we know that the gang truce was hammered out in September has been holding. Is this an indication of further de-escalation of rival groups on the streets?"
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"I think every success that we have in Belize City wouldn't be contributed to the success of the truce that we are having in our city today."
Jules Vasquez
"Now the grenade, it does not look like the types we know were stolen from BATSUB or the types we know have been used in other occasions in Belize. Is it your opinion that this is another family of grenades other than the BATSUB one which we also saw Ross Kemp handling?"
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"The BDF has done their assessment and the reports coming from the BDF expert is the fact that the grenade is of South Korean origin and the M40 is of American origin."
Jules Vasquez
"Now is there any idea how these items ended up on the city streets?"
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"At this moment we don't have the information as to how they got on the streets of Belize City but the very important this is that they are off the streets and this is one of the great significant public safety event for city residents."
Jules Vasquez
"Ok now explain this M40, I have never seen it. It looks huge. I see its 4 inches long by 2.5 inches wide."
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"It's actually 2 inches wide by 4.5 inches long and it is used to be discharge from a M16 rocket launcher or an air 15 rocket launcher."
Jules Vasquez
"For those of us who don't know anything about that type of weaponry. How dangerous is something like that?"
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"Well it is very dangerous Jules. It is close to the danger of a grenade being thrown."
Jules Vasquez
"Now the fear immediately arises that ok wow you got all of this but there may well be more."
Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster (Ag.) CYDP
"There will be more Jules and the entire police department and security forces, intelligence community are working very tirelessly to ensure that we rid this hardware off the streets of Belize."
To be specific, there was one grenade, 12 of those 40mm live rounds, Fifty-two 7.62 live rounds of ammunition - which are used in M-16's, and Eighty-six .223 live rounds of ammunition - which are used in SLR's or self-loading rifles - a high powered weapon. According to police, the explosive was handed over to Belize Defense Force for safe keeping.
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